402

402: Control (Episode four)

(It’s been a while since this happened so I did this in point form. Sorry. -Dj)

After the fight with Discorsi, the PCs are thrown into the Guardians of the Veil prison. They wait there until Holmes comes to bail them out.

The next day, the PCs arrive at 402 and find Holmes scrambling with phone calls. He instructs them to go to Zion’s sanctum and bring her to 402, telling them to make sure she doesn’t forget “the ritual”.

The PCs head to Zion’s place and pick her up.

Upon arriving back to 402, they find the place teeming with people. Most of their allies are present, including Cacudeus and Tessa, Ricochet and Smokey, Antigone, and even Lady Peace.

Holmes and Zion give a speech to the amassed crowd, about how they’re going to find Faust by using an ancient scrying ritual that Zion located.

After giving the instructions, the awakened in the group sit in a circle and start the ritual, using Justicar as the crux, due to the fact that he can link his own mind mastery with Faust’s and that he and 402 have had the most contact with him.

The ritual goes off without a hitch and the PCs locate Faust at Portland Major, searching the cupboards there for some kind of chemical. Wiki and Antigone open portals.

After gearing up, Quantum goes through first. She finds Faust and eight of his anarchist minions. A moment later, Mingan, transformed into a huge Kodiak bear, jumps through the portal with Cacudeus. A fight ensues.

Justicar is the next to go through, then Wiki. However, after she makes it through, the portals mysteriously close, leaving the group stranded in a fight.

When the fight starts, Faust disappears and fights from the shadows. The group makes short order of his minions. After most of them are down, Justicar uses his powers to track Faust and hits him with a blast, dropping his cover. Faust and Justicar have a short mind-battle, and Justicar appears to have the upper hand, when Faust unleashes his power onto Justicar. Justicar dies as Faust reels from the pain. The other PCs, shocked, turn their attention to Faust, who disappears again.

Suddenly, from the shadows, the man in the half-mask appears with a phalanx of henchmen. He addresses Faust and scolds him for trying to kill Justicar and the other members of 402. Faust freaks out and decides he’s had enough of doing his dirty work, and attacks the man vigorously. The man in the half-mask appears unphased by Faust’s onslaught and pulls a small pistol from a holster, then shoots. Faust laughs, but soon realizes that he can’t heal himself. Having realized that the bullet was obviously atlantite-fused, Faust dies.

The man speaks to 402, including the still-floating Justicar. He re-introduces himself as Hyde. This is the first time the cabal have gotten a chance to get a really good look at him, and they notice that his arm is covered in bandages. He speaks to them curtly, then goes to leave. He uses his arm to somehow open a portal; however his magic is unlike anything anyone there had ever seen before. Antigone actually recognizes this type of magic, and asks Hyde if he is the wayfarer. Hyde laughs and responds yes. Antigone, astonished, asks to come with him and he obliges. Hyde, Antigone and the henchmen leave through the portal. Justicar falls to the ground, alive, but barely. Holmes and the rest of the ritual group show up and tend to Justicar’s wounds.